Earthquakes have never bothered me although I can appreciate the fear and truama they cause in others. Durring the '57 quake, I was in 2nd grade and spent the time under a desk shared with Burth Lanthier; we were drawing navy battle scenes at the time and the quake only added to the realism of our fantasy.

The Loma Prieta was a bit more surreal in that all my neighbors seemed to be wandering around their front lawns in a daze, wondering what had interupted the Bay Bridge series. We set up camp outside, cooked on the grill and made it into an adventure (I had a live-in girlfriend with 2 young daughters at the time)

What I couldn't live with are hurricaines or tornedos; seeing a disaster headed towards me on TV would be too frightening for words. I know this is what keeps a lot of folks from moving to California and I bought my home in Livermore because the 1980 quake there caused an Arkansas family's microwave to walk across their kitchen and the wife began packing for Littlerock right after it stopped. I guess Littlerock was better than a big rock. In any case, I prefer the element of surprise although I've heard crickets may be able predict quakes and are often kept in bamboo cages by the Chinese to help call the weather and for good luck. Any truth to this?